Della Rocca, Michael
Senior Fellow: June–July 2020 –– DEFERRED
Research Project: Spinoza and the Parmenidean Ascent: Themes from Wittgenstein and Sextus Empiricus
During my time at the Maimonides Centre, I will build on the rationalist, Parmenidean, and sceptical research programme launched by my book The Parmenidean Ascent, which will be published in summer 2020. The monism in that book—in the form of a rejection of all distinctions—has sceptical implications, not just in the sense that it leads to a doubt or denial of distinctions to which we are ordinarily committed, but also in the sense that it challenges whether we even have—as we uncritically presuppose that we do—a coherent understanding of such notions as being, action, knowledge, and meaning. During my time at the centre, I would like to deepen this sceptical strand in my project by examining the rationalist underpinnings of the scepticism of Sextus Empiricus and the extent to which this kind of scepticism, infused by the Principle of Sufficient Reason, can be found in Spinoza. This distinctionless, sceptical monism that I will explore in Spinoza reflects a major change from the interpretation of Spinoza that I offered in my 2008 book in the Routledge series in the history of philosophy, and indeed a related project on which I will be working at the Centre is the completion of the substantially different second edition of my book, Spinoza.
Michael Della Rocca is Andrew Downey Orrick Professor of Philosophy at Yale University.